Essential Mathematical Methods for Physicists: and Engineers (Hardcover)

~ Hans J. Weber (Author), Frank Harris (Author), (Author) "In science and engineering we frequently encounter quantities that have only magnitude: mass, time, and temperature..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"...achieves a comprehensive coverage of the 'essential' topics in mathematical physics at the undergraduate level...filled with enlightening examples..."
- David Hwang, University of California at Davis

"The book contains many worked out problems some of which are solved in more than one way to accommodate different learning needs and styles..."
- Amit Chakrabati, Kansas State University -- Review

Review

"True to the title, this new text achieves a comprehensive coverage of the 'essential' topics in mathematical physics at the undergraduate level. This new version is filled with enlightening examples, which is the key to undergraduate teaching. More importantly, many examples are real problems from various fields of physics."
- David Hwang, University of California at Davis

"The book contains many worked out problems some of which are solved in more than one way to accommodate different learning needs and styles of different students. Particularly, the chapters on vector analysis, determinant and matrices, Fourier series, and probability are extremely well written and will be an instant success with the students."
- Amit Chakrabati, Kansas State University

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 932 pages
• Publisher: Academic Press; 1 edition (August 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0120598779
• ISBN-13: 978-0120598779
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #697,281 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Weak on rigor & physical insight = bad book, January 17, 2006

By	A. Potter - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Strengths:
- Fairly complete coverage of the various properties of special functions. The introduction of these subjects is not good, but one could use it as a refrence for formulas.

Weaknesses:
- Topic selection and rigor are weak. Many important areas of mathematical physics are skipped over, or short changed. For example, the section on tensors is far too short. In addition, everything is introduced in index notation instead of coordinate free form. Also, the group theory section is very weak (not to mention short). The rotation group and lorentz group are discussed briefly, but there is no systematic introduction to lie groups or other important topics.
- The book seems to focus on special functions, and solving differential equations. However, it does not introduce hilbert spaces well, and therefore the presentation seems like a bewildering array of bessel this and fourier that, without anything to tie it all together.

Overall, I'd say the book sacrifices depth by covering too many topics. If you want to really succeed you're going to need a full course each on linear (& some multilnear) algebra, mutlivariable calc & vector analysis, differential equations, complex analysis, differential geometry and group theory. If you want a condensed version, get byron and fuller. It's written systematically, and strikes (in my opinion) a perfect balance between rigor and pragmatism.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better Overview then Book, February 17, 2005

By	Gordon Stangler (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is much better as a reference book for someone who already understands the material then for a student just learning. The book covers everything from Coordinate Systems to Calculus of Variantions, PDQ's, and Special Unitary Groups in highly dense sections, with little or no examples.

The problems are extraordinarly tough, and they seem disjointed, lacking any real focus and coherence, exp. towards the front of the book. Once you get past the physics in the first part, and into the math section of the book, it slows down, and really explains ideas, as well as providing excellent problems to work.

I would recommend this book as a reference, but there are better books out there. For reference, I would also recommend Schaums Outlines; and for a text book, I would recommend David Hilbert's Mathematical Methods Vol I, and Vol II.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Better as a reference, January 25, 2005

By	Chelskate (Oxford, OH) - See all my reviews

I used this book for an undergraduate math methods for physicists course. While in the class I found it very difficult to learn anything from it, as it is rather dense. I found that most websites I looked to for help cited the book though. Now I find this book to be a very useful reference. It's definitions are fairly concise and topics are not spread throughout the book. Bottom line: great reference, poor learning tool.